Dominguez High football coach Willie Donerson, whose team is coming off an impressive 60-7 win over Carson, is treating Friday night’s tilt with Poly like any other game.

Sort of.

Dominguez has not beaten the Jackrabbits in four tries under Donerson but will get its chance when the Dons (2-1) play Poly at Veterans Stadium in a nonleague game.

“Oh gosh, we’ve been looking forward to this game for quite some time,” Donerson said. “It’s a chance to play against a great team, but at the same time, you have to put it into perspective. It’s not like we’ve never played them before.

“We scrimmaged them last year and honestly, we’re a week-to-week team. Our kids don’t really care who we’re playing. To them it’s just another game. Of course, it would be nice to beat them.”

According to Poly athletic director Joe Carlson, no one will be admitted into the game after 8 p.m.

Last Friday night, Los Alamitos had a tough time with L.A. Locke but the Griffins eventually won, 14-6, to improve to 3-0.

And even though it wasn’t pretty, Los Alamitos coach John Barnes couldn’t care less. It was a win.

“Locke was a good team, a lot better than people thought,” Barnes said. “They won their first two games by a combined score of 78-0. We really didn’t do much on offense but at the end of the day, we were ahead on the scoreboard and that’s all that counts.

“In the course of a season, you’re going to have bad games but you have to play through them and find a way to win.”

This week, the Griffins play La Habra at 7 p.m. Thursday at Veterans Stadium.

After not qualifying for the playoffs since 1984, Compton suddenly finds itself 3-0 after beating Lynwood, 27-7.

But as the Tarbabes prepare to kick off the Moore League season Friday with a home game against Wilson, Compton coach Calvin Bryant said any talk about the playoffs is premature.

“Oh my goodness, we’re not talking about anything right now except our next opponent,” Bryant said. “Wilson is a good football team and if we don’t execute against them, we could get beat.

“We just want to continue our success from the preseason into league play. We’re riding a roller coaster right now and we just hope the ride doesn’t stop for a while.”

Cabrillo finds itself still looking for its first win of the season after the Jaguars lost to Fremont, 28-21.

And things won’t get any easier this week. Cabrillo (0-3) hosts Lakewood on Friday at 7 p.m.

“(Beating Lakewood is) a tall order, that’s for sure,” Jaguars coach Marcus Turner said. “Lakewood is a great team but we can’t worry about them. We have to play our game. What more can we do? We have to play to our strengths.”

Speaking of Moore League openers, Millikan will host Jordan at 7 p.m. on Friday, and Rams coach Kirk Diego is looking forward to it.

“Jordan’s coach, Scott Meyer is a good friend of mine,” Diego said. “We used to coach together at Lakewood and it should be fun. Even though we lost to Downey (30-23), a lot of good things came out of that game.

“We eliminated our penalty problem and we were down 16-0 at one point and we came back to tie the score at 23-23. We know we can do some things on offense, now we just have to make sure last week’s success carries over into this week.”

Cerritos coach Aron Kaye is excited about playing at Bellflower Friday in the Dons’ Suburban League opener.

Especially after watching junior running back Louis Preston run for more than 200 yards and 2 touchdowns in Cerritos’s 14-12 win over Rancho Alamitos last Thursday.

“We’re a young team,” Kaye said. “A lot of our guys have never even played football until they reached high school so we probably have to do a lot more teaching than other programs, but I’m excited.

“Bellflower is a well-coached team, they have a lot of talent and the only way you know how good you are is by playing good teams. But I think after Thursday’s win, the kids are excited and we’re playing them at the right time.”

— Ben Villa

Girls volleyball

The Moore League race will continue to shape up starting today as all four of the top teams and 2004 CIF Southern Section Division I-AA quarterfinalists face their rivals.

Wilson hosts archrival Poly, while Lakewood hosts Millikan, with all matches scheduled to start at 4:30 p.m., depending on how long the JV matches take. Thursday, Wilson is at Lakewood, Millikan is at Jordan and Poly faces Compton.

Poly drew first blood in what is expected to be a wide-open race with a sweep of Millikan last week.

“It’s time to lay it down us and Wilson, Lakewood, Millikan,” Poly coach Jeff Eyanson said. “And Jordan. Jordan’s going to be pretty good.”

— Matt Zimmerman

Boys water polo

Former Wilson High goalie Chay Lapin will compete alongside former teammates Matt Sagehorn and Anthony Artukovich at the Junior World Championships from Oct. 5 through 16 in Argentina.

The event, which will take place at the Pan American Stadium, features teams from 25 countries.

Lapin, a redshirt freshman at UCLA, played on the U.S. Senior National team last summer.

Sagehorn and Artukovich, seniors at Wilson, and Lapin led the Bruins to three consecutive CIF Southern Section Division I titles. The trio were selected from a field of 24.

Poly junior David Sodeberg, a first-year 2-meter man, is turning into a scoring machine in the post. In a recent three-game span, he tallied 16 goals. “David is learning the position. He is not the biggest guy in the world (5-foot-9), but he plays bigger than he is,” Poly coach Scott Pentilla said.

— Earl Williams Cross country

The Poly boys and girls will begin defense of their Moore League titles in the first league meet at Discovery Well Park in Signal Hill Thursday at 3 p.m. The competition, featuring all league teams, is the first of three league meets with the second league meet at El Dorado Park on Oct. 13 culminating with the league finals on Nov. 3 at Heartwell Park in Long Beach.

The Poly girls are led by senior Tava Tedesco, junior Vania Santos and sophomores Emily Rubin and Carley Lopez. Senior Ethan Durham, who finished third in the 2004 league finals, is the top returnee from last year’s finals for the nine-time defending Jackrabbit boys.

Join the Conversation

We invite you to use our commenting platform to engage in insightful conversations about issues in our community. Although we do not pre-screen comments, we reserve the right at all times to remove any information or materials that are unlawful, threatening, abusive, libelous, defamatory, obscene, vulgar, pornographic, profane, indecent or otherwise objectionable to us, and to disclose any information necessary to satisfy the law, regulation, or government request. We might permanently block any user who abuses these conditions.

If you see comments that you find offensive, please use the “Flag as Inappropriate” feature by hovering over the right side of the post, and pulling down on the arrow that appears. Or, contact our editors by emailing moderator@scng.com.